Quotes from the Movie Lean on Me

The Lord said, do whatever you have to do. And he didn't say "Joe, be polite."

Joe Clark

They used to call me Crazy Joe. Well now they can call me Batman!

Joe Clark

I don't have to do nothin' but stay black and die!

Joe Clark

You know what he's saying right now? "Black bastard can't throw me out!" You know where he's saying it? Out in the parking lot.

Joe Clark

Get off welfare!

Joe Clark

They said this school was dead. Like the cemetery it's built on. But we call our Eastside teams 'Ghosts,' don't we? And what are ghosts? Ghosts are spirits that rise from the dead. I want you to be my ghosts.

Joe Clark

The problem with teenagers today is you don't know nothing. The problem with being a teenager is you think you know better than those who have been down that road you're traveling.

Joe Clark

Forget about the way it used to be. This is not a damn democracy! We are in a state of emergency and my word is law!

Joe Clark

I want all of you to take a good look at these people on the risers behind me. These people have been here up to five years and done absolutely nothing. These people are drug dealers and drug users. They have taken up space. They have disrupted this school. They have harassed your teachers. And they have intimidated you. Well, times are about to change. You will not be bothered in Joe Clark's school. These people are incorrigible. And since none of them could graduate anyway, you are all expurgated. You are dismissed! You are out of here, forever. I wish you well!

Joe Clark

Discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm.

Joe Clark

You think you can run this school? If you could, then I wouldn't be here, would I? No one talks at my meetings. NO ONE! You take out your pencils and write. I want the names... of every hoodlum, drug dealer, and miscreant who's done nothing but take this place apart on my desk by noon today.

Joe Clark

You know why you're being demoted, Mr. Darnell? Because I'm sick and tired of our football team getting pushed all over the field. Thank you, sit down. I want PRECISION. I want a weight program. And if you don't like it, Mr. Darnell, you can quit. Same goes for the rest of you. You've tried it your way for years. And your students can't even get past the minimum basic skills test. That means they can HARDLY READ!

Joe Clark

Because you are failing to educate them, this is the posture that many of our students will wind up in. Only they'll be staring down the barrel of a gun!

Joe Clark

And I've got a message out there for those people who have abandoned you and written you off. You are NOT inferior. Your grades may be. Your school may have been. But you can turn all that around and make liars out of those bastards in exactly one hour, when you take that test, pass it, and win!

Joe Clark

Mr. Mayor, on behalf of myself and behalf on the students of Eastside High, you can tell the State to go to hell!